Six fun things to do with Rust operator overloading
abusing overloading to make custom syntax and more...
I am not endorsing the code in this post.
C++ Input/Output
Instead of
stdin().read_line(&mut buffer).unwrap();
println!("Hello I am {name}!!!");
we can overload the shift operators on cin
and cout
to allow
cin >> &mut buffer;
cout << "Hello I am " << name << "!!!" << endl;
Variadic Functions
Instead of
std::cmp::max(x, y);
[w, x, y, z].into_iter().max();
we can make
// max+ is like std::cmp::max but better
// it supports >2 arguments
max+(x, y);
max+(w, x, y, z);
More Concise Builders
Here's a more serious one. Builder pattern sometimes involve a lot of repeated method calls. Take for example this usage of the warp web framework.
let hi = warp::path("hello")
.and(warp::path::param())
.and(warp::header("user-agent"))
.map(|param: String, agent: String| {
format!("Hello {}, whose agent is {}", param, agent)
});
What if the API look like this instead?
let hi = warp::path("hello")
+ warp::path::param()
+ warp::header("user-agent")
>> |param: String, agent: String| {
format!("Hello {}, whose agent is {}", param, agent)
};
Infix Functions
Instead of
x.pow(y);
dot_product(a, b);
a.cross(b.cross(c).cross(d))
we can make
x ^pow^ y;
a *dot* b;
a *cross* (b *cross* c *cross* d);
Lots of people wanted this!
Doublefish
std::mem
provides these functions
size_of::<T>();
size_of_val(&value);
Turbofish enthusiasts would enjoy size_of
but not so much size_of_val
, so let's make our own improved version of size_of_val
that's more turbofishy
size_of::<T>();
size_of_val<<&value>>();
Join and Race
Futures combinators can have short-circuiting behaviors
// quit if any of the 3 errors
(fut1, fut2, fut3).try_join().await;
// quit if any of the 3 succeeds
(fut4, fut5, fut6).race_ok().await;
let's communicate this through &
and |
(TryJoin >> fut1 & fut2 & fut3).await;
(RaceOk >> fut4 | fut5 | fut6).await;
Useful Links
- Discuss this on Reddit
- Playground containing the implementations behind some of the code shown here
- std::ops docs
- Rust operators precedence table